Poetry Collection- Jacob Young

Owls and Other Fantasies

By Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is an American poet and the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Oliver has taught at multiple colleges and has written five collections of poetry. She is currently 80 years old and lives in Florida. The New York Times referred to Oliver as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet.” Oliver’s verse focuses on the quiet of occurrences of nature: industrious hummingbirds, egrets, motionless ponds, “lean owls / hunkering with their lamp-eyes.”

"Mary Oliver." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016.

The over-arching theme of this collection is to envelop the reader in the natural world. Humans play a small role in the “family” of nature, as expressed in the opening poem “Wild Geese.” The collection goes on to reference a zen-like nature, to express the tranquility of all that the birds represent in the world. In “Some Herons,” one heron is described as a blue preacher, and another an old Chinese poet. However, as Oliver wrote this in the later days of her life, a portion of the poems reference the finality and understanding of death and the cycle of life. In “The Dipper,” Oliver talks about a bird that she saw half a century ago, but is now merely a pile of crumbled bones. There is quite a lot of text devoted to owls as well, as the title of the collection would suggest. The wise owls have special significance, as they are a symbol for the understanding of death and the wisdom that is gained throughout the course of one’s life.

Hawk

This morning

the hawk

rose up

out of the meadow’s browse

and swung over the lake –

it settled

on the small black dome

of a dead pine,

alert as an admiral,

its profile

distinguished with sideburns

the color of smoke,

and I said: remember

this is not something

of the red fire, this is

heaven’s fistful

of death and destruction,

and the hawk hooked

one exquisite foot

onto a last twig

to look deeper

into the yellow reeds

along the edges of the water

and I said: remember

the tree, the cave,

the white lilly of resurrection,

and that’s when it simply lifted

its golden feet and floated

into the wind, belly-first,

and then it cruised along the lake –

all the time its eyes fastened

harder than love on some

unimportant rustling in the

yellow reeds — and then it

seemed to crouch high in the air, and then it

turned into a white blade, which fell.

This poem is centered around the core theme of the collection, coming to terms with death and the cycle of life. The hawk represents death, as it is even referred to as “heaven’s fistful of death and destruction.” It is not a painful process, however. As horrible as we think death may be, the hawk shows us that it is still a peaceful, beautiful occurence, as the hawk is “exquisite,” with “golden feet.” Oliver also tells us that death is not the end of all things, it is indeed a cycle. When one thing dies, another is born anew. We know this from the allusion to resurrection, through “remember[ing] the tree, the cave, the white lily of resurrection.” This is a reference to Jesus and Mary. Death is just another piece in the natural cycle of things, and it is not something we should be afraid of, it is not “something of red fire,” or from hell. No, according to Oliver, life and death both come from heaven, therefore they are equally as important and beautiful.

Oliver’s style in this collection is very precise with sharp imagery, while still maintaining a sense of zen and inner-monologue-esque verse. As if in a daydream, Oliver peacefully yet clearly expresses nature and the birds that fill its skies. This is an aspect of my writing that I wish to further develop, being able to be precise with my language yet be indirect about the subject of my verse, just talking with sincerity and awe. Oliver also uses the birds, owls in particular, as a symbol for the cycle of life. Many poets use life and death in symbol form, yet using birds consistently yet still remaining original is something about Oliver’s writing that I admire.